Man United CEO Omar Berrada reveals why he’s still backing Ruben Amorim as he draws Pep Guardiola comparison | OneFootball

Manchester United CEO Omar Berrada has reaffirmed his belief that Ruben Amorim is the right man for the job, despite the struggles he has endured so far at Old Trafford.

Amorim was named United head coach in November last year, succeeding Erik ten Hag, who was sacked after a string of poor results and performances.

United identified Amorim as their preferred managerial target and moved with speed to secure his appointment. It’s believed Amorim had reservations about taking over mid-season, but once the club told him it was now or never, he promptly accepted to leave Sporting CP.

But, Amorim’s arrival failed to inspire an upturn in fortunes. In fact, it can be argued that things became much worse.

The Portuguese coach won just seven league games, as he guided United the side to a lowly 15th-placed finish. United suffered 18 defeats and picked up a mere 42 points.

However, United decided to keep faith in Amorim and are intent on backing him heavily during the ongoing summer transfer window.

Berrada sat down with the United We Stand fanzine and explained why he’s still supportive of Amorim.

The United chief admitted that they were fully aware that bringing in Amorim midway through the season was always likely to make it “even more difficult for the team to perform.”

He told Andy Mitten, ” We saw it as an investment for the following seasons, because we were going to give time to Ruben to get to know the squad, the club, the Premier League. So by the time that we got to now (June 2025), we’ll have had all the discussions about what does the squad need, the two-to-three-year plan to get to a squad that’s capable of winning the Premier League.”

“We have a very clear roadmap of how we’re going to get there. Had Ruben started on July 1, 2025, we wouldn’t have been able to have all that knowledge, right? And that’s what I feel these seven or eight months that he’s had. He’s suffered in the Premier League, and the team has suffered. That’s why I feel that it’s really going to help us in the future.”

Asked whether there are similarities between Amorim and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, who also experienced difficulties in his maiden campaign in England, Berrada answered, “Very much so.”

“Pep stuck to his principles and given what he’d won, he had an enormous amount of credit in the bank. He was allowed that first year to be below-par by his standards. The club backed him that summer, the team started winning and created this winning cycle that lasted until this season.”

Things were just as turbulent off the pitch for United as they were on it.

Hundreds of staff were made redundant as part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s efforts to cut costs and make the club a profitable outfit once again.

United also sanctioned an increase in ticket prices, which sparked fan anger and led to massive protests.

However, Berrada expressed confidence that the worst is already behind and the future is looking more promising.

“We’ve taken all the short-term pain in this season, but as of this summer, the worst bit is going to be behind us. We will have settled the management team; we will have settled the coaching team with the technical team around them.”

“And on the football side, there’s a clear idea of what we want to do, what players we want to get, how we want to see the team playing, how we’re going to integrate academy players, how we’re going to go and invest in future talent.”

“I sit here today and I’m actually very optimistic and quite positive about what’s ahead. Of course we need to get a lot of decisions right. And we will make mistakes, there’s no doubt. We’ll try to minimise those. But what we want is to build something that’s sustainable for the long, long term, right?”

Berrada insisted that United can still win the Premier League title by 2028.

He said about this ambitious objective, “We’ve just finished 15th and it seems like an impossible task. But why not aim for it? Why not do everything in our power?”

“I firmly believe that we can do it. We have two or three summer windows to build a team to start competing to win the Premier League, and if we can achieve it before then, we’ll all be happy — and so nobody’s saying that we don’t want to win it until then.”

Berrada issued an apology to United staff and supporters for some of the difficult decisions that had to be made last term.

In particular, he acknowledged the poor handling of the ticket price hikes and took responsibility, assuring fans that any future decisions would be managed far more thoughtfully.

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